When war is a part of you
by Puffin777
Summary: A machine shifter story inspired (see A/N at bottom of chapter 1) by war thunder, main character; Evo has had the ability to change into machines since he was born, but always repressed it. He relents when those closest to him are killed during the blitz, he joins the armed forces and fights alongside them to bring vengeance to the Germans while keeping his ability secret
1. Chapter 1

**When war is a part of you.**

 **Long** **A/N:**

 **Based off war thunder because I have more respect for the realistic details and I can't think of all the tanks as having a health bar! (the only difference is that Evo does not have crew in whatever shape he is)**

 **the main character (called Evo, male. if you want other details not explained int the story please ask) finds himself in Britain during the second world war. Having discovered a unique ability to change into any military machine (from first world war to present (2019)), he represses the ability and even refuses to join the army until the beginning of the blitz.**

 **This starts when the blitz begins (not the phony war) for his village (please tell me if any of this is inaccurate for this period).**

 **Explanation as to why this is a fanfiction (for me) can be found at the bottom.**

 **Influenced by ratbat (some of his works are NSFW) so machines have various human traits. But not anthro**

 **Contains death**

 **Chapter 1: the bombs start falling.**

Evo was once again thrown onto the dirt, his diminutive stature was simply not adequate to protect himself from the bullies, he had become quite short; in relation to others that came to his school, and certain people picked up on this to vent their anger onto the boy.

"how does the dirt taste, wimp? Or do you need to discover that again?" Said one of the boys surrounding him. He knew what he had to say next, he had to answer their question, however idiotic it might seem, otherwise they would simply repeat the torture.

"it tastes disgusting and earthy; now will you please leave me alone?" Evo hoped desperately that this was one of the lucky times that he was left alone, it wasn't.

The same bully continued his 'punishment'. "don't you dare think this is over, you think we'd let you go without a good kicking?"

Evo winced, the kicking was the worst part of the pain; each hit could leave an aching pain that continued for hours after these 'sessions '. At this point, like all the other times, he wanted to change into the steel goliaths that he knew he could transform into, it was sure to get the bullies running, but also sure to have him become even more alienated from everyone else at the school.

It was at this point that the most unlikely saviour came; an air raid horn.

Evo thought quietly as the people surrounding him ran off to the nearest shelter, something was wrong, they hadn't been told of an air raid evacuation practise. Obviously something was wrong, but Evo couldn't get up in his injured state, his worst fears were realised as he heard aircraft engines. He didn't know much about them, but by the lessons taught by the teachers at his school they were capable of blowing apart entire buildings. Evo was feeling increasingly venerable as the sound grew louder.

As he heard the first explosions Evo realised he had to change before he was killed by these terrible weapons, he quickly brought up his mental list and selected a tank quickly.

He was surrounded by glowing dots outlining the tank's shape before it solidified, and his view changed. As the explosions grew closer, the outline of a crusader tank could be seen sheltering in the corner of the school yard, turret slowly turning back and forth waiting for the first sign of destruction; which soon came as a bomb blew apart a wall close to him. His immediate surprise turned into thankful relief as the shrapnel ricocheted off his armour. The celebration was premature as he saw a suspicious line of explosions that seemed to be approaching his school.

As a bomb rained debris onto his school he hoped desperately that the bomber was out of bombs, his hopes were torn apart as an explosion consumed the school before another one found the worst possible target: the shelter: after a brief plead that the bomb had, in fact, not destroyed the shelter were once again shattered as he saw the ruins of the shelter; roof missing.

Evo rushed over, changing out of his tank form to personally try to help the people involved, his eyes were horrified to see that the bomb had done its job with deadly efficiency; every person inside was killed or wounded too much to live much longer. The saddest death was his best friend Leo, he was at the edge and still conscious when Evo appeared at the missing roof, Evo watched as Leo gazed up at him, eyes sparkling with tears even through the thick clouds left in the aftermath. Leo then stood up from his sitting position and for a moment he appeared to have survived, but as with all in that shelter I was proven wrong. His front was bleeding in several places as he attempted a step, pain evident in his eyes at the awful strain on his crippled body before they shut as he slipped into unconsciousness before he finally let out his final breath.

Shaken from the awful sight he had just witnessed; his world had no guide for him to follow after the death of his only friend. He looked up at the source of his anguish, droves of bombers continuing their assault, but it was here that a new faithful friend emerged, not a person, but rather a force. The attack was not unhindered and, as he watched, fighter planes, with the roundel proudly detailed on their wings, tore into the attacking force with their machine guns. I watched from the ground with pride and awe, until eventually realising I had found my destiny; I would join the R.A.F and fight with them to defeat the enemy that had just taken the life of my best friend.

With determination in my step I strode out of the destroyed school yard and towards the nearest recruitment station.

 ****after joining up to the R.A.F****

Training went by quickly, there was a lot to learn but I was not prepared to relent my desire for vengeance against the 'Nazi' forces. I gained a new friend while I was there: He (John) had gone through a similar experience and had also lost those closest to him. We helped each other for the period until the day we had awaited came; beginning active service.

There was excitement in the air as we crawled into our fully armed hurricanes, we were supposed to wait for the scramble, but we were too interested in getting our hands on the 'live' fighter that we ignored that wisdom for now. We were still running through personal checks on the aircraft before a sudden noise shook us from our curiosity, a ringing bell.

Fully aware of the meaning behind the bell it was agonizing waiting for the ground crew to start up our engines before we could fly. Eventually the engines started up and one of the ground crew fired a flare to clear us for take-off. The Hurricanes powerful engine roared as I increased the throttle, setting my plane in motion.

In a few moments the undercarriage left the ground as I gained height, the land dropping away serving to increase my excitement. As the last planes took flight our squadron reorganized itself into 'Vic' formation before following the squadron leader to our operational area.

Our force was rapidly closing on the specified area but when we arrived we were disappointed to find only 3 bombers. However we still gave them the 'proper send-off' with our weapons and were able to prevent any of them from returning, without receiving any critical damage ourselves. After a quick search of the area to confirm there weren't more we returned to the airfield.

John greeted me as I stepped off my plane's wing: "so what did you think about our first combat sortie?"

I responded rather flatly "not very interesting, plus the machines are a lot harder to command as the pilot… wait." where had that come from? He had simply dropped a huge hint to his friend about his greatest secret! What kind of person was he if he could keep a secret for many years despite bullying and then casually dropped it into conversation with his best friend!?

John looked surprised, which immediately removed Evo's chance of ignoring his blunder. "what do you mean 'machines are harder to command as the pilot'? you always fly a plane as the pilot! Otherwise it doesn't fly!"

A million opinions of what I could do circulated in my head until I reminded myself of an important point: he is my _friend_. With that point, almost every single argument dropped, and I knew what I had to do, no matter how terrible it had seemed before; he had to give up his secret to his best friend.

He tried to be hopeful for the outcomes as he confided: "I have… something special, although I can't show you here."

He was confused until I gestured towards the nearby people, his eyes widened at the realisation of what he meant: "you have a secret?"

I nodded grimly, "I can show you, later today while everyone rests."

The wait lasted a long time but eventually all the members of the squadron were trying to sleep off their first encounter during the night, except two: Evo was stressing about confiding the truth and John was too excited to sleep.

After ensuring that the surrounding area was clear Evo whispered into the night "John, are you there?"

An equally hushed voice responded "yeah, what did you want to tell me?"

I turned on my hurricane lamp and came to find him, after seeing him crouching expectantly I could feel my stress increase as I prepared to tell him.

"I can change into military machines." I stated as bluntly as I could. He stared at me for a long time before laughing, I was aware of how silly it must seem but for the sake of my very sanity he must know.

"I kid you not, it's a strange condition, but I have it."

John suppressed his laughter to speak "you _must_ be joking, nothing as supernatural as that even happens in the fiction books I read at school."

I decided then that actions speak louder than words and prepared the very same form that I had used on that fateful night. Yet again the silhouette of a Crusader tank, gun barrel facing towards John, a symptom of my attention to him, not that I was trying to hurt him.

John's laughter died abruptly until my engine noise was the only sound that filled the clearing. With my enhanced vision I could see the look of shock on his face as he looked at me in the dim light. After having revealed my secret I hastened to transform back to answer his questions in person.

He looked from me to where the turret had been and back again. His speaking broke down in response to the surprising shock to his systems. "what the… that is… just…" but he shook his head before he could finish any one of his sentences. I assumed I had to fill the void.

"strange isn't it, I don't know how it began."

He finally came back to his senses. "that was… awesome" he said in a subdued voice. I smiled and then froze as an idea came to mind

"would you want to command a military machine?"

He shrugged with uncertainty, "perhaps, but probably not a tank, I'm more interested in planes, you know, being a pilot and such."

I nodded quickly, it was understandable he would request this.

"I did say _any_ military machines, anyway, which one would you like to control?"

He shrugged again, and I realised that the planes he knew about were also the only ones he had ever flown (apart from German ones)

I sighed as I went through my mental list. "so… British fighter planes… those are old… that's what we have now… and those… are interesting, very interesting."

He perked up "what's interesting?"

"there's a section of planes that use 'jet' engines." I said unsurely

"really? What could those possibly be." He asked, fortunately he was curious enough to be patient with me and I appreciated it.

"I think it would be better to show you, I don't quite understand the idea behind them myself."

As soon as I had uttered those words I assumed the shape of what I hoped was the first jet, the later ones were far stranger for me. An English electric lightning outline of glowing points appeared before solidifying into metal.

John's astonished face could only murmur a quiet "wow" as he saw this new, very strange transformation unfold before his eyes. He was shocked out of his stupor when an eye opened on the cockpit and looked at him, John was slightly afraid and turned around to run but a mouth on the plane spoke gently. "don't worry there, friend, it's still me, just in a different form," John, against his instincts, returned to the plane and looked up at the eyes he had only just noticed (although it was on the crusader as well).

Instead of continuing to talk with his friend he carefully invited him to enter the cockpit, John began doing so and before his fears could catch up to him again he was in the seat. Evo's voice suddenly changed from his external mouth (underneath the nose intake) to the radio in the cockpit.

"put the headset on" he began as he prepared his friend for what would be a first time experience for both of them. After he had explained the basics, Evo began the take-off procedures.

"starting up engines." John heard a unique roar begin to fill the cockpit even with his headset on. It increased in intensity until Evo announced that they were ready to go. The pangs of fearful curiosity returned as the brakes released and the plane rolled slowly at first along the grass. Within moments the jet had accelerated to its take-off speed, the undercarriage finally leaving the ground as Evo had done in a much different craft an hour beforehand.

John braced against the speed that he had not anticipated beforehand; the aircraft covered ground faster than anything he could comprehend. Although he did have to admit that the experience was unique, flying this 'jet' John could feel a certain respect for the engine's sheer power, anything that could move a plane this fast deserved some kind of attention.

After many more miles of quick flight; John started to feel uneasy about their direction: they hadn't turned around and the English Channel was getting far closer. "where are we going?"

The radio turned on. "I've had a grudge against Germany for a long time as you know, I wanted to see it with my own eyes." Although Evo was clearly going into enemy territory John had to admit he felt almost invincible in such a fast aircraft, he was even certain that they could simply outperform any enemy aircraft, even though he had heard so many stories about pilots that grew too arrogant and were thus shot down. He also could agree with his, now machine, friend; he wanted to see where all the attack's orders had come from, whatever cruel place that could possibly want to see a country's demise and the death of its people.

The channel came and went; Evo carefully checked their course before scanning the ground with all the sensors that could help. "We should be close to the city of Berlin by now, If I remember my geography lessons…" Evo informed. John laughed at the change from a frightening death machine to one that doubted it was in the right place.

They still hadn't found any city when Evo declared something he had seen on his radar. "I can see a few outlines in front of us, should be aircraft, let's attack!" John was almost caught on the excitement but had to calm himself, there were enemy aircraft and allied aircraft, attacking the wrong one would be a calamity "get close and check first, we need to make sure that they're friend, not foe," He then lowered his voice with the onset of strong emotions "don't want to kill our friends"

Evo wisely held his fire until they could get close enough. Since Evo wasn't so good at identification, especially in the dark, he rolled upside-down to let John have a view of the bombers, whose gunners had begun trying to fire at the approaching aircraft's flame exhaust, having seen nothing like it before.

John strained his eyes to identify the bomber's silhouette against the night lights on the ground. Having eventually found his answer he quickly gave it to his plane friend: "they're allies." Evo gave a quick affirmation on the radio before trying to reach the bomber's radio to stop their fire. After listening on the different frequencies, he heard a crew member talking about seeing a strange fighter. After hearing this message, he quickly sent a response on the very same frequency: "stop firing, I'm on your side!"

At his words there followed a brief moment of suspicion before they realised that he wasn't attempting an attack causing them to finally cease fire. After ensuring that the guns had stopped he came closer to the squadron before levelling off and acting as their escort.

The same crew member from earlier managed a response to the fighter after seeing that it was friendly. "what kind of plane are you then? I haven't ever seen an aircraft that can fly even when it's engine is on fire!"

Evo huffed at this, while John still had no Idea how Evo had managed to talk down the bombers. Evo replied swiftly after his show of embarrassment. "it's supposed to be like that, it's called a jet engine, and this is an English Electric Lightning." The crew member responded in a clearly confused manner "what the hell is a jet engine? Who wants an engine that spews out fire?"

Evo responded casually while John continued to wonder just what was going on: "they work in a similar way to normal engines, but are slightly more complicated, also I think that the main focus is speed."

The man laughed at the absurdity of such an engine. "you're saying that engine can go faster than a high tech piston aircraft? You've got to be kidding me, I don't even think that you could overtake us, and we're bombers for crying out loud!" some faint chuckling could even be heard from others that were close by. Evo stayed quiet before switching to the cockpit radio and warning John to brace for a stunt. John did as he was told and was very aware of the engine's roar intensifying again.

The crew of the lead Lancaster were shocked to see the plane fly so fast. A cacophony of noises could be heard in the background of the radio frequency. Evo finished a short burst on full power before gently turning back towards the bomber squadron to resume escort again. A silence dominated for a long time afterwards, temporarily being broken to release the bombs and checking that they had hit the intended targets (Evo confirmed they had missed civilian targets with a quick recon detour)

The second break in the silence was a lot more active than the first; Evo found some more targets on radar and asked the crews whether they were supposed to be there (for a friendly mission) but the navigator said there weren't any other missions that were supposed to come close. Evo thanked him for the information and consolidated his weaponry: 2 cannons as he was used to, but also 'fire streak missiles' that were 'heat seeking'. Evo decided to try the latter first as he had no Idea of how it worked, he fired one and watched as the missile followed one of the enemy planes before blowing it apart, causing a noticeable confusion amongst the rest of the squadron who began to split up, Evo used as many of these missiles as he could but noted that they were distracted by the superheated air of the explosions as well as the fact that he was too close to them by now to effectively use them.

Deciding to ditch his missiles for now he concentrated on slamming his cannon rounds into the enemy fighters, before rushing past them and having to reacquire. Unfortunately, this 'hit and run' tactic gave the fighters enough time to find the bombers they had been tasked with destroying. Evo readjusted his trajectory to catch multiple enemies in his sights before letting the cannon fire.

John was slightly nervous in the cockpit, He didn't know how to pilot the aircraft or even how to help Evo on his mission. Instead he was forced to watch as Evo took down plane after plane, desperate not to let one reach the bombers, his only other action was bracing against the turns that the jet made after each run, wishing Evo would be slightly gentler but knowing that the speed was necessary for the defence of the bombers. One fighter got lucky and raked one of the Lancasters, a cry of pain from the radio telling Evo it had not gone without injury. The enemy fighter's victory was short lived as Evo dispatched the plane with another heat seeking missile.

After searching the skies with his radar for more fighters he relented, once again resuming his position. "I can't find any more fighters, but I am also sorry for letting one get through, it's disappointing to defend you better." A slight chuckle from the radio confused him, the voice seemed to sound… happy. "don't be so hard on yourself! Even if we sustained an injury it's far worse than the casualties we normally take. If it hadn't have been for you we would be pretty helpless, sure we've got turrets, but they do horribly against enemy fighters, so all I'm trying to say _mysterious 'jet' pilot_ is 'thank you!'"

Evo felt a quick pang of gratitude, but he remembered that John still didn't know what was happening. Evo changed to the cockpit radio to give John the update he desperately needed. "Hello again John, sorry I forgot about you earlier." John was startled by the sudden sound filling but he eventually it was just Evo talking to him again. John then responded to Evo's words. "Don't worry, I understand that you needed to protect them against the fighters, just try not to do the high speed aerobatics again. Also, we need to sneak back into the airbase without anyone noticing."

Evo told John he understood before asking permission to be dismissed as escort to the bombers, when the radio operator agreed the lightning once again increased throttle to make It back to the airfield quickly before John called for Evo's attention again. "I don't think we can land this plane back at the base again, it's too noisy to come in without anyone noticing." Again, Evo agreed before planning a quiet approach, this time his choices were limited, the military wasn't necessarily focused on keeping quiet.

After finding this he went for a trainer version with very little engine power; As the plane shifted John found himself in a new cockpit, basic and with no weapons. As this realisation dawned he gauged the engine noise and found it to be very quiet, compared to the jet beforehand. "nice choice, should be able to land without much difficulty"

Evo concentrated on landing while still scanning in case someone was investigating the earlier jet take-off. To his relief he found no one near the runway as his wheels softly touched the soil, slowing to a halt before shifting quickly to reduce the chance of someone noticing. John was simply dropped from his previous position in the seat, but Evo was at least back in human form to try catching him.

John recovered slowly from his unexpected fall, "That was… a strange flight indeed," Evo nodded his head slowly, having an adventure at this _speed_ was not something he would have expected when he woke up today. Also, the Lancaster crews were eventually going to spread the word about the strange fighter that had helped them; and then things were going to get _interesting._

He halted his pondering for a brief moment to respond to his friend. "if you don't mind, would you do it again?"

John thought about it for a brief moment before answering. "hell yeah…"

 **END OF CHAPTER**

 **A/N:**

 **I know that this is very loosely based off war thunder but it was that game that inspired me to think about military machines, and that lead to this story, I had played world of tanks beforehand but it seemed fake, especially when a** _ **tank destroyer**_ **couldn't destroy a tank as well as a medium for instance (I had many stressful moments when playing with German tank destroyers, which is also the type I made) it felt like it was too focused on being a game.**

 **War thunder felt amazing after playing world of tanks, yes you could be one-shot easily, but it made sense when it happened! And tank destroyers are again my favourites for their penetration capability.**


	2. 2: When war has another like you

**When war is a part of you.**

 **Chapter 2:**

Evo and John went back to bed for that night, waking up to perform daytime fighter duties.

Each was very excited about their first venture last night; Evo was amazed that he had shared his deepest secret of his being with someone else for the first time. John was still recovering from the adrenaline of jet flight.

Of course, they had to make do with their hurricanes for the moment, but that was the point; their nights would be far more interesting.

They met with joy at the start of the day in the dining room, excitedly trading their own perceptions of their experiences, quietly, in case someone else overheard. Eventually breakfast was over, and they had to wait near their fighters until the bells rung.

Here they began exchanging plans of what to do on their next assignment; now that they knew about Evo's abilities it was incredibly tempting to change how they performed their official job; especially when it was so ideal for that purpose. Evo agreed with John that he would integrate himself into their assigned fighters and give them an overhaul; including replacing the weapons; the ground crew might notice, but not if Evo changed them back at the end of the day.

Eventually the famous bell rung again, giving Evo and John purpose to get into the hurricanes and, with the rest of the fighters, Start up.

The engines discharged a small clod of unburnt fuel as black smoke, which was followed by a flame as the first combustion cycles began.

The prop lurched and then roared into life, followed by many more across the field. Soon they were rolling out and the Hurricanes were ready to take off.

They followed the flight leader as he led them away, their gears leaving the earth before retracting into the wings.

Evo and John adjusted their formations to fall into green sections 2 and 3

Once the majestic, hardy beasts were in the air, the flight leader radioed in for the target co-ordinates. They heard a short hint of his conversation before he turned, causing us to bank as well to retain formation.

It was about 10 minutes later when they saw the first planes, a decent chunk of 16 bombers droning through the air. Evo tried to imagine each of them carrying the grim reaper, a thought that spurred him on during his attack run.

Each plane took a bomber to attack, spreading out to make sure the bombers were dealt with quickly. Evo's bomber went down without much fight when subjected to the cannons he had fitted.

John's bomber was a stronger adversary.

John was good at aiming but the bomber somehow managed to block his every move with a spray of bullets, preventing any straight-line attack runs. He pulled out of his last failed attack run and resolved to do another, except this time there would be no retreats.

His plane reacquired the bomber and the distance closed slowly, getting closer to strike range. It was just as he focused on his sights that the bomber gave his fighter a spray of bullets.

This time, without the impetus to retreat, John's engine quickly bore the brunt of the attack. Eventually the engine, although valiant in the sheer number of bullets it had absorbed, set itself on fire.

It was only at this point that John realised his mistake. He bailed out as the fire spread, letting the flame-stricken Hurricane begin it's howling descent to the ground. As he fell, John, instead of pulling his parachute straight away, aimed at the offending plane with a high-powered pistol.

The lead was perfect, and the bomber took the hit in the engine; which soon began giving off smoke. It was an extremely skilled shot, but the recoil caused his body to tumble, making it extremely hard for him to focus on getting his parachute pulled.

Evo was looking for another target before he saw John's hurricane take a face full of bullets, before falling out of the air. Having no targets himself, he went into a shallow dive so he could keep an eye on where he landed.

Then the bullet fired

Evo was initially stunned that John had tried to use a gun in mid-air but shook it aside as he saw the chaotically- falling body of his best friend. This caused him to steepen the dive, realising he was the only person who could help.

With the aid of his streamlined shape and powerful engine, Evo pulled alongside the flailing body, before extending a manipulator arm to grip John, stop his spinning and then released him again to allow him to extend his parachute.

With his friend saved, Evo now concentrated on the bomber that had shot John down. By now, the other fighters had finished with their planes, but were having the same degree of success as John had before. Soon they decided to pull off, one bomber not worth the downing of all their fighters.

Evo was extremely angered at this bomber. He had already lost one friend and didn't like the thought of losing another. Thus, he came in closer to the damned bomber.

He was to be surprised by this seemingly unthreatening plane.

The same bullet hail that had surprised John now ripped through Evo's plane. Having integrated into the aircraft to rescue John, Evo now felt each bullet tear through his fuselage. Eventually his engine sustained enough hits to die.

Without power now, Evo faded into unconsciousness; his close connection to the plane meant that when the engine stopped, so did conscious thought.

John watched Evo's revenge from the safety of his chute. What he saw next shocked him; Evo had been shot down as well! The falling fighter was soon going to pass him, before hitting the ground, but not if John could do anything.

John sighed with dreaded anticipation of what he was going to do; Evo needed someone to take back control of the plane before hitting the ground; John was going to try to be that person, ' _I can't believe I'm going to do this for him, he'd better give me a good "thank you" if we get back.'_ After thinking this, John did the unthinkable for a pilot in his relatively safe situation; he cut his parachute ropes.

Now in free fall again. John was nevertheless focused, getting ready to come alongside the fighter and take control. The hurricane came closer, and John braced himself for the task ahead.

As the hurricane passed John he reached out and grabbed the passing plane by the leading edge of the wings, before shuffling his hands towards the cockpit. He reached the canopy and used one hand to open it forcefully, before bracing himself against the wind on the seat back and crawling into the cabin.

The ground was still coming closer, and John still had to reach the controls. He tied the control stick to himself in anticipation for the incoming G force before pulling back hard.

The hurricane pulled out of the dive agonizingly slowly. Meanwhile, John was struggling to stay alert as the blood rushed to his head. The ground was still in his vision, still a possible threat.

And then it made itself an absolute threat.

John, having barely bore the brunt during the heavy G manoeuvre, passed out when the Hurricane grounded itself viciously; multiple parts shearing off at the violent stress now put on them.

John had a lucky break. He hadn't been properly seat-belted in and was thrown out of the cockpit into the muddy field. He slid across the waterlogged soil, gaining multiple cuts from small rocks embedded in the ground.

He gained consciousness a few hours later.

Groaning, John lifted himself of the ground, wincing with the effects of his injuries. He still had to revive Evo though. and so, regaining his location and Evo's current location, he dragged himself towards the downed husk behind him.

Reaching the downed plane, John wondered what to do. Obviously human first aid wouldn't work on a machine, but he imagined that the engine would be the heart of the machine and so focused his effort there.

He cut through the ends of the propeller so the central shaft could turn; he felt horrible when he knew that this machine was the current form of Evo and he was just slashing through it but recognized it as necessary. With the earth-bound ends of the propellers removed, John twisted the propeller shaft with as much force as he could muster.

A horrifying screech echoed through the field as the engine turned, cutting off various metal parts off inside the engine block. Eventually the major resistance fell, allowing John to rotate it with only slight difficulty. Evo's 'eyes', on the side of the engine, finally opened blearily, before adjusting to focus sharply on John's actions.

Then Evo, in his confusion, used his machine 'mouth' to talk to John, "what happened? Why are you doing that with the propeller?"

John took a short pause from his grunting to reply, "trying to keep you alive, try to change back as soon as possible!"

It took Evo a few seconds to process what he had said, shown eventually by the retreat of the plane's image into Evo's shocked human form. John was initially confused when Evo's body didn't seem to have wounds but recovered when he saw the pain on Evo's face, causing him to collapse.

The pain seemed to be mental, not physical

John stumbled over to his incapacitated friend; worried about Evo's wellbeing. He laid his hand on his friend's shoulders and attempted to calm him. Evo was writhing in the wake of phantom pains from his tragic flight as the hurricane. The presence of John, however, helped him to realise this wasn't real, that he wasn't being torn apart by bullets.

His writhing slowly calmed as his worried friend stood over him. Eventually he came to his senses; sweating from the exertion of his panic. Seeing John's face clearly brought the need to question his environment; "John, am I injured? Do I have wounds or bruises?"

It was understandable, he had just been shot to pieces and then crashed, but luckily the scars were oddly absent from his human body. Thus, John's response was pretty easy, "No, the machine scars didn't carry across, luckily for you. Do you want to turn into a Hurricane so we can get back to base?"

Evo's shaking started again, aware of the fate of his last transformation into the plane. John was quick to remove his doubts, "relax, you're going to transform into a hurricane. Not the wrecked one, a _new, undamaged_ one. You'll be fine."

Yet again it was the presence of John that contributed to Evo gaining control of himself. He nodded and let the hurricane form again; as spotless as if it had just come out the factory. John boarded the aircraft; making sure to scrape the mud off his boots beforehand, lest he insult Evo with muddy boots in the cockpit.

Evo felt the footsteps of John into the cockpit, along with a warm feeling that he was safe from harm, safe in the arms of Evo himself. This feeling of security was still passing through Evo's mind as he started up his engine and attempted to get off the ground as quickly as a muddy field would allow.

Eventually the undercarriage left the earth, now far less clean than it had been before. Evo did a quick mental check to confirm his heading home before turning back to base.

John was stunned into silence as the events that had transpired a few minutes ago came back to him in full force.

He would have died.

He should have been thinking about his own life, how cutting the parachute was a _preposterous_ act for a pilot while in mid-air, but he had done it; to save his friend.

He was glad that Evo was also indulged in his own thought, and so silent, since it allowed him the necessary space to stop and think; "So this is how important Evo is to me, I never kne-"

His thoughts were shattered as a loud roar cut through the air, similar to the English electric lightnings but different in a way that told him it definitely wasn't. He observed out of the window a strange aircraft; like a normal fighter of the time, but with two pods underneath the winds spewing out fire.

He rushed to get Evo's attention, "Evo! What's that plane off the right wing?"

Evo's 'eyes' glanced in that direction, before widening (although John couldn't see this) "that's a Meschersmidt 262 jet, that shouldn't be there."

John was confused, "why shouldn't it be there."

Evo replied, getting more panicked as the possible implications rushed to his mind, "that fighter was built in the future, they shouldn't have it now."

John took this opportunity to think about what they could do. The jet seemed to spot them and banked for a turn.

Evo began an evasive turn as well while John came up with a solution. He eventually had a 'eureka' moment and passed on his thoughts, "I think I can shoot him down, do you have a sniper rifle in your inventory?"

Evo did, in fact, have these in his itinerary and was preparing a suitable specimen for John to use when the need for a purpose stopped him in his tracks, "are you sure? How would you be able to shoot down a jet"

John took this as a chance to show Evo his own skills, "I think I can, you remember the bomber?"

Evo gave a quick yes, although distracted by the incoming jet fighter. "Yes, what about it?"

John continued, his tone seemingly unaffected by the quickly oncoming danger. "you remember that one of its engines was down?"

Evo pulled a quick turn, making John release a quick groan at the onset of g-force, to let the jet fly past. He then continued the conversation, hoping for a quick solution, "yes, is this going to help us against the bomber"

John paused his recovery from the g-force exertion to say his critical statement, "I shot that engine with my own pistol, I think I can hit him."

With the final realisation, Evo let his passenger have his rifle and John pulled back the canopy to line up his shot on the right-hand side of the cockpit. The jet had pulled around for a second attack and John put his crosshairs onto one of the engines.

He pulled the trigger.

The round shredded through the various levels of the turbines, causing the engine to explosively fail. The sudden loss of an engine from this supposedly helpless plane caused the enemy to pull up and left, out of sight of John in his current position.

Evo was glad that John had managed to repel their attacker, but froze when he saw the sides of the jet, ' _were those…'_ his observation was cut off as the sides became unviewable, but when the jet went level again he confirmed his thoughts, ' _yes, those are_ eyes _, what is going on'_

The Me 262 paused again before attempting a retaliatory strike, anger now present in those 'eyes' Evo had noticed just now. But the plane turned off again, and Evo realised why; John's sniper rifle was pointing out on the same side as the plane, ' _obviously it's extremely scared of that weapon, understandable; since it just took out one engine with one hit.'_

Even over these observations from the prey of the predator (or was it the other way around?), Evo wanted to get closer. So, he gave John a quick warning to get his head and sniper rifle inside before transforming back into the English Electric lightning; determined to give the aircraft a chase.

The, living, Me 262 panicked at the sight. Sure, a person using a weapon wasn't an unusual sight in Germany but transforming was. Now the jet found itself in an unenviable position; it had just lost its speed and performance advantage.

With no foreseeable outcome other than being shot down, the Me262 fled the battlefield, changing into a faster variant of plane to escape the situation. Evo was too stunned to react before the plane was out of his radar range; lost for now.

John saw his potential target fleeing the battle as soon as Evo shifted into his jet form. His view, however, was obstructed when it shifted, meaning that he was completely confused when the jet suddenly vanished, "Evo, where did that fighter go?"

Evo was still blind to the outside world, eventually a repeat of the question brought him out of his daze. He responded extremely disoriented, almost drunk, "You didn't see? It turned into a faster jet and left! I'm not the only weapon shifter, it seems."

John was now also stunned, going through the same confusion as Evo had moments prior; compounded by the knowledge that he had damaged one of the fighter's engines. He decided to bring this up, "oh, sorry about shooting your friend. Didn't know he was special."

Evo suddenly gave a loud scoff through the intercom, "friend? I don't know it, whoever it is, and it was trying to shoot us down! Just because it's like me doesn't mean that it's friendly."

John gave slow nods, accepting the obvious truth in that statement, before coming in with his own view, "but it does mean there are more shifters than you."

Evo agreed, "yeah, I wonder if we will ever see him again."

John rebutted, cautious of possible ignorance, "could be a she, we don't know."

Evo scoffed again "what are the chances of that? the only people you see fighting here are male, why would there be a female fighter?"

Meanwhile, far away:

The second shifter sweated profusely, "since when could anyone hit something moving so fast? Who is that pilot? I guess it doesn't matter now, I've got to get home again and pretend like I never left the orphanage"

She changed her course with this new resolution in mind.

 **A/N**

" **She" will have a back story; don't you worry about that.**


	3. 3: Christa

When war is a part of you. Chapter 3

 **A/N:**

 **bio of the mysterious shifter is at the beginning; marked by "bio start" and "bio end". I will be doing these for the fury riders as well when I get to updating that story.**

 **In response to the review by guest; Evacuations had not come around by this point since many people around this area did not know about the sudden change to civilian bombing. Panzer front… I had no idea of what it was and so I don't quite understand why you thought it influenced the story. Also, I have airplanes in my story; that game is a tank game. Thank you for your review and the introduction to a, previously, unseen game!**

 **I had another Httyd story, M-Rated now removed** _ **from site**_ **by will of my mother, but I myself reject the stopping of that story and you can ask it from me if you follow the instructions on my profile, it will be updated like my other stories. (to the guest that asked for it back; sorry, mother's warning)**

 **Evo, John and *mysterious shifter*; I'll just say something about that (song) "** _ **we'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day!"**_

 **End A/N (sorry for the song, just remembered it from school. I would do a long way to Tipperary, but I'm not sure it would fit into the context)**

 **Bio start:**

Christa, the name of the shifter, had known her ability, like Evo, for a long time. She had, however, used it far more often. She and her family had owned a nice rural house with a massive field; which Christa used to set up target practice while her parents were away selling for harvest.

It was her favourite time of year when she would pick random tanks from German history; past, present and future, and fire their non-explosive shells into the far ranges of the empty fields.

Her introduction to the orphanage was not due to allies, although she was made to believe as much; instead German gestapo officers had shot both her parents due to her father refusing to work in the factories.

They came upstairs after their initial murder and found the daughter curled up in bed; trying to ignore the shots.

Deciding to spare the child, the officers told her that her parents had been killed by troops carried by air from dreadful Britain; and that they had come in to subdue said troopers but had been too late.

She believed this on the way to the orphanage that would become her home until she could find a way out; seeing the corpses of her dead parents. Strangely enough, there was a nuance that the gestapo could not have foreseen begin to develop; Christa did not hate Britain's entirety, since the officers had said it was only the parachute regiment.

Instead Christa loathed the RAF, the organisation she thought was responsible for her parent's death.

She would keep silent for many years in the orphanage, now under constant social pressure to keep her ability hidden.

It all changed when she heard the news that RAF were shooting down numerous bomber crews and bombing Germany itself. That very same day she set out early in the morning in Me 262 form…

 **Bio end.**

John was ready to sleep off the day's events when they got back to base. Evo, though, was not. The appearance of the shifter had stayed in his mind; causing him to grow more and more curious; ' _could I make contact ever again? Maybe I can learn more about its story? Is there any chance that you could be… friends?'_

The last part was powerful for Evo; he knew that John had been extremely accepting of him and had been simply nice in general. But he still didn't know exactly how Evo felt; since he was not a shifter himself. Now the opportunity came for him to find someone similar to him.

He was eventually coerced, by the lack of impact from his thoughts, to go to sleep; She was someone new, but he could only wake up to meet her faster by sleeping sooner.

Christa landed carefully in a quiet road near the orphanage; engines off to remain silent. She had been lucky enough that the closest orphanage to her house had still been situated in the countryside; and thus, was not populated enough to notice the strange jet.

She retracted her exoskeletal jet fighter form into the black haired, black eyed human form; such a dark appearance had caused a wave of bullying, but she could easily ignore them; their words still carried no sway in the dark wave of sadness that had infected her life after her parent's death.

She felt the call of the bed, but also a rush of curiosity. Unknown to each other the "other shifter" resonated in both of their minds. Both had the thought of meeting the other, but where and how?

The new day blossomed on the R.A.F base:

Evo and John had finished their breakfasts before the sun and now John was ready to relax until the ominous ringing of the bell.

Evo, however, wanted to find out as much as possible about the strange shifter as he could and, after Evo's refusal to come with him, jumped in his plane and took off; planning to intercept the shifter once he was in the skies.

The roar of his engine grabbed the attention of the other pilots and thus Evo's departure wasn't without some confusion from the squadron. Luckily, John was there to explain that he was planning on patrolling the coast while in flight.

This, reasoned John expertly, would mean that he could pose a hindrance to bombers far before other units could respond; effectively creating an image that Evo was tactically minded and willing to put himself in danger for Britain.

The squadron leader bought this and passed on the information that one of their fighters would be doing airborne patrol.

John, although he had just voluntarily helped his friend, was furious at Evo. He looked to the piece of sky where Evo had gone before turning back to base with a quick curse; "Evo, you have to find out more. But this is a war and your _romantic desires_ are not what we need."

In more ways than one, Evo was still a child lost in fantasy.

War is not for such romantics.

The squadron leader, called Tom, came back with some thankful news for all but one of them; since they hadn't found a fighter to replace the one he had lost he would be putting their squadron on standby.

There were cheers and general merriment from the others as they prepared to go to the bar or back to loved ones for today. Soon only a few; disinclined to get drunk or go home, stayed. Evo's friend was one of them;

John wasn't going to take this break to relax; he had refused to go with Evo to stay with the squadron after all.

Without the need for him to stay behind, he soon asked for the same permission as Evo, hoping to use his replacement fighter (which was in too bad a shape for his squadron leader to take it) to take to the skies.

Tom granted it, although with the knowledge that the plane couldn't possibly be repaired in time.

Thankfully John had the resource of the brilliant R.A.F ground crew that were more than willing to return his plane to working order; as well as being reasonably qualified himself. Eventually the plane was as good as new in breath-taking time.

It was now that Tom decided to try and reclaim the fighter; running across the soil after seeing the brilliant condition of the plane. John gave the most definite "no" with a quick spin up before rolling through his take-off.

As he left the ground, John could see the look of absolute disbelief on Tom's face; from his decision to launch airborne _on a rest day_.

This tickled John and he laughed while at his controls, before changing course to follow Evo.

Evo himself had changed into a high-powered radar plane; the Wedgetail, and intensely monitored the airspace in front of him for any signs of the approach of a single plane; a sign that the other shifter was coming.

He found a blip after a few hours deep in Germany but moving with astonishing speed towards Britain; this was obviously his target. He repositioned himself to be in the way of the aircraft; expectant to meet this newcomer machine-face to machine-face.

The Me262 soon arrived; initially stunned by the other strange plane before turning onto it. Evo was lost in observing the smallest details of the strange jet when Christa suspected a ruse. The meeting was too coincidental for her liking, without knowledge of the radar; and so, she placed her crosshairs on the unarmed plane and fired a long burst.

The high-powered rounds tore through the large plane, but Evo was more shocked than hurt; none of the rounds had hit his engines yet and his flight surfaces were undamaged. The jet broke off the current run and began anew, although this time her progress was impeded by a stream of machine gun bullets; she pulled up and right while John's hurricane rushed past, committed to its attack run.

It had been a one-time trick though; due to the manoeuvrability difference between propeller fighter and jet fighter, and she was eager to shoot down this irritation. Evo had also, by now, shifted into a more manoeuvrable Hurricane himself so he could try to fight back.

The jet reached the apex of her climb, bleeding off all of the speed, before stall-turning onto John's attack path. She lined up her sights again and was again about to fire when another sudden burst tore apart both her engines simultaneously; this wasn't done by Evo, since he was still in shock, but rather Tom; having become motivated enough to take another plane after John had left.

Christa was caught entirely unawares, and the unsettling sound of her engines dying accompanied her into unconsciousness. Soon, the jet was plummeting without control, only the lift generated by the wings preventing a straight nose dive.

John was quick to react and cut his speed briefly to come alongside the fighter. At the same time, he radioed for assistance, "can you help? It'll be like dealing with the doodlebug (which had appeared in the combat long enough for air crews to find solutions; one of them was to flip the doodlebug by the wingtip). Tom! Take the wing. Evo! Take the tail; if you can. Get it back to base!"

Although it took precious seconds to react, eventually Tom then Evo formed up in their positions; Tom and John began gently pulling the jet by the wingtips upwards while Evo lowered his aircraft landing gear onto the tail until eventually it began to pull up.

They manipulated the aircraft in approximately the same style until landing back at their base. The other pilots were astonished to see such a strange aircraft handled by such a weird formation of hurricanes; especially Evo with his wheel placed precariously on the tip of the tail fin.

The touch down was successful; letting John and Tom handle rolling control at the last second while Evo turned away for his own, separate landing.

Finally, John and Tom used their rudder to turn away; preventing themselves from becoming fatally locked with the unguided aircraft.

Eventually the Me262, engines still smoking after their damage, rolled into the mud at the end of the strip; where it finally stopped moving enough for the other remaining pilots to take a closer look.

John was not in the mood for closer inspection, and instead he called over a truck to help tow the plane into a hanger where they could keep an eye on it.

The truck started up and rolled slowly towards the immobile plane before turning around for the driver to get out and attach a tow cable to the tail fins.

He got back into his cab and was soon pulling the metallic airplane passed the shocked bystanders and into a free bay in the service hangar; allowing himself some room to get the truck out after he had towed it into place.

Eventually the Me262 was in the hangar and safe from the elements. This was when the others assembled around the strange craft; especially Evo and Tom while John himself surprisingly rushed towards the engine pods. Tom noticed; "John, what do you think you're doing under there? Don't get your limbs cut off if it starts up!"

John was well aware of the risks, but for his own curiosity's sake as well as for Evo he took out some tools and began removing damaged sections from the inside.

Tom watched on in wonder as John commanded the assembled mechanics on how to handle this new craft; not with a detailed understanding of the craft itself, but rather an understanding of the way he could resuscitate the unconscious machine.

He broke off a few damaged turbines before asking another mechanic if he could bring a compressor to air-start the engine; for fear that manually turning the turbines would cause his hand to be cut off, or more.

While the compressor was fetched he got some tape to attach the different sized openings together. As soon as the bulky pump was in place he began attaching multiple tapes from the outlet pipe to the inlet of one of the jet's engines before starting the pump as soon as it was sealed tight.

The roar of the compressor was soon accompanied by the sound of the turbine edges scraping the sides of their container and then nearly everyone was shocked to see eyes and a mouth opening on the jet as soon as consciousness was regained.

Christa came to, muttering some German as she groggily woke up. It was surprising to her that she was still alive; considering she had felt both her engines die in mid-air. She initially began to think this was the afterlife before her senses picked up on multiple disturbances: loud compressor, front lit vision, smell of fuel and tiny space. She fully perked up to see something strange attached to her right engine with people close by as well as a row of men in flight uniform.

So basically, not a good space; even if they were German they still would-

"What the heck's that!?"

Oh, so they were English, even worse. She sighed; the sudden movement of her fang-filled mouth caught the pilots off guard, before switching to English.

"what are you doing to me?"

Tom was going to start off aggressively, but Evo calmed him before he could shout. John joined in with an acknowledgement of the people surrounding Tom, "Squadron leader, could we talk without the others? No offense, but they're probably not used to this."

Tom agreed and sent off the rest of his squadron until only he, Evo, John, Christa and the unsure mechanic remained in the hangar.

Now that the others were out of sight, John relaxed and began to answer Christa, "we found out that you were a shifter. We were going to talk, but your… lack of compliance forced us to take other actions."

Christa was surprised that they hadn't intended to attack her in the first place, but the fact they knew she was a shifter without the obvious presence of the other shifter among them concerned her, "how do you know I'm a shifter, I don't see another like me in this audience."

Evo, shyly, stepped forward, "I'm that shifter that you saw. We came across you quite recently when you turned from this jet into another. That's how we know."

Tom was unsure about the conversation around him "Evo, you're a shifter like _HER_!?"

Evo nodded slowly, Tom was beginning to lose his temper and Christa was aware of this; backing away slightly.

In the time that they had been talking Christa's engines had repaired themselves; small bouts of flame threatening to take root, but Christa was currently in an favourable position for such action.

John gave a happy acknowledgement that the engines had repaired; which did not go unnoticed by Christa. She began to suspect that certain people here did actually care about her.

John took off the improvised attaching system; now that the air supply wasn't needed, and even carefully brushed off the adhesive until the metal shone in its original glory. He straightened up from his work and came around, still marvelling at the intricacies of the jet up close.

Evo was confused at John's sudden interest in her. Meanwhile, Christa herself was flustered by the sensation of touch as John had taken off the mechanism.

John quickly revealed the purpose of his intentions; "I may be emotionally invested in this war, but my father told me how to be a mechanic before I ever knew about combat. She's the finest aircraft I have ever seen!"

Christa was definitely blushing at this point; the comments were very close to compliments, and therefore romantic enough for a reaction; a redness spreading on her metallic cheeks. Thankfully for Christa's sake; Evo was more miffed by John's betrayal than Christa's reaction; "you've seen the Electric lightning, that craft was faster _and_ more sophisticated."

Tom wasn't allowed the time to interject before John responded, "I know that, but I've seen the entirety of her engines, I only got a glimpse of the intakes on the lightning. I would love to say that I like that plane more, but I don't know what's under the hood; what drives it forward."

This was a reasonable statement, but the person he was talking about observing was feeling slightly violated; Christa responded with shock, "what do you mean, 'saw my engines?' did you do anything else?"

John shook his head; Tom had given up on trying to interject and stormed off; Evo followed. John then took in the sight of the departing men before continuing, "I didn't attempt to harm you permanently; but, without knowledge of the internal parts, I had to trim the turbines down until they could turn…

[she began stressing about the damage done; shown by the increase of her engine sound]

…don't worry! They've repaired, as you well know. I can't see anything wrong with them at the moment. But please…

[he placed a comforting hand between her nose-mounted cannons]

…Tell me if anything's wrong and I'll try to help; I know that taking your human form is uncomfortable in a foreign land, but I also don't want you to feel uncomfortable."

He retracted his hand from its position, before sitting in a position nearby to take watch, with a small whisper that he hadn't counted on Christa being able to hear, "ya beauty."

Christa took this statement in before deciding to try relaxing in her Me262 form. She found standing uncomfortable; but strangely John went out and got pillows to lay beneath her as soon as he saw her discomfort. She settled down carefully on her new resting place before letting her engines idle for her sleep.

 **End of chapter**.

 **A/N**

 **Looks like John has a stronger affinity for machines than Evo; it surprised me (I create this story as I go along; this direction was a completely unexpected turn)**

 **End A/N**


	4. 4: exiled from squadron

**When war is a part of you chapter 4:**

 **A/N:**

 **Talking about the second world war I designed a mortal-engines flying type settlement with all-British military capabilities; the fighters it is equipped with are Spitfires, the name of the settlement itself is also Spitfire. It's going on my profile.**

 **Do you want a particular machine/ combat scenario in this story? Like all other stories of mine, just PM me your preference and I'll see what I can do from there. I, for example, think that the Boulton Paul Defiant should get some fame.**

 **I do not speak German, and I would probably insult anyone who could by using google translate, so I'll just keep it all English. Sorry, but at least you know that I understand that German people should be speaking German.**

 **End A/N**

Christa was treated to a unique sensation before even opening her eyes; she had never been asleep in machine form and now she could feel her engines starting up from almost idle to a warmer state. She then took in the view of the room as her vision cleared; the only person still in her company was John, sleeping on a nearby chair.

She was going to wake him up, but then decided to let him rest while she extended her undercarriage to look around the base.

She was given the first sight of the outside world again when she used her manipulators to open the hanger doors; John had left them closed so that she could sleep. Her eyes momentarily winced at the onset of bright light, but after they had adjusted she giggled at the thought that she was going to look over the air base of Germany's biggest enemies.

Her initial predictions that the base would be splendid were reversed quite soon as she saw the large holes in the runway; surely they weren't meant to be there?

This distraction leads her to glimpse some of the men working at each hole; filling them in slowly to allow the Fighter planes to take off once their crews were woken up. She was surprised at this commitment to work; having never seen a German air-base to compare it to.

She did take their presence with some caution as well, though, since she didn't want her curiosity being rewarded with hostility. She kept observing silently; looking at the fighters arrayed on the sides of the runway and a building she didn't know the function of (mess hall/ resting area before scrambling).

Soon, her exploration was complete in a disappointingly short time; there weren't that many structures around. Instead she concentrated on getting a closer look at the Hurricanes; keeping watch over the engineers repairing the runway until she could hide behind the nearest fighter.

Now that she was in place, she extended a manipulator arm to the engine covers; taking one off so she could take a glimpse at it's powerplant. Her investigation was abruptly halted as she heard a voice from behind her, "please leave my fighter alone."

Initially fearing that she had ticked off someone important she turned around and then sighed in relief; seeing that it was John standing there; a look of unsure curiosity on his face. Christa perked up and embraced John; knowing he was one of the people who had genuinely cared for her when she arrived; Evo himself had almost completely ignored her after being pulled aside by Tom. John grinned and hugged her back, "nice to meet you too. I can tell you more about them If you like, you don't have to sneak around the airbase."

Christa retreated slightly as she realised that John knew what she'd done, "Sorry, I wasn't thinking. Just curious."

John kept up his pleasant demeanour, "Don't worry, as long as you don't damage anything you can look all you like. I should mention that this is done in good faith that you won't report this to Germany."

She hadn't been expecting her allegiance to come up now, of all times. She hesitated a moment; her desire to answer casually warred with her innate loyalty to Germany. In fact, this response provoked something deeper, something from her childhood and the death of her parents. Why hadn't she killed him already? Her view became more sinister; the overlaid aiming reticle appeared in preparation for combat. But, she couldn't do it; even with her cannons aligned and the simple nature of pulling the trigger she couldn't do it.

Why?

The answer was simple; she had no reason. Her parents had been killed, supposedly, by ground forces who hated Germans enough to kill civilians; the people around her had _revived_ her and John had made sure she felt _comfortable_ in her new place.

John, the person in front of her cannons, the person she would've killed. She might've even killed him before; shooting him down during their dogfight. And yet, with the knowledge that she had tried to fight, she was accepted.

John was confused, his only signs of her internal struggle was the shifting of her expression; unsure, then a worrying red glint from her eyes and then that disappeared and left her staring at the floor, "are you alright?"

She seemed to re-acknowledge he was still there, "I got distracted, I understand, and I thank you for trusting me, why are you being so nice to me?"

John had an embarrassing truth; he would never have let a normal human German girl have this much respect, "It's because of your shifting capabilities; Fixing and managing machines has always been a small hobby of mine, but to be able to speak to said machine? Magical. I understand that you aren't normally a Me 262, but I somehow find that talking to you in this form is more appealing."

This was too easy for Christa to make fun of, "What is it? [she presented her engines] is it the cowls?"

John was happily surprised, "are you seriously using a machine body to flirt with me?"

Christa grinned widely and John laughed hard, "You have got to be kidding me! _That's_ something I've never seen before."

Gradually he calmed down, before acknowledging the sun's current position, "Anyway, I suspect that you're going to have to go back to the hanger; the other pilots are coming soon and I doubt that they wouldn't panic with a jet fighter around their planes. If you want anything I'll try to help with that."

Christa nodded in acceptance, and then slowly rolled back to the hangar. John watched her go before checking whether the other members of the squadron were ready yet. He found that they were having breakfast, but not yet ready to begin active service. Knowing that he could still stay by the hanger when the operational day began; thanks to the distinctive sound of the bell and the proximity of the hangar to the fighters, he was going to go back.

However, he had a tap on his shoulder.

Turning around he saw Evo and listened as he began speaking, "How is she?"

John responded quickly and with a carefree attitude, "She's fine, I'm just going back to her hanger, you want to come?"

Evo accepted quietly, following John as he proceeded towards the building where Christa was housed. Evo's timid state was due to his meeting with Tom the day before; explaining to the man about the strange existence of shifters; exposing himself to a long night of intensive, abusive disbelief. Tom understood now, but the price had been high for Evo; he silently wished that he wouldn't have to explain his condition to many more people.

Their plodding footsteps reached the hanger, where they saw that Christa had reclined again; keeping her eyes open slightly. Evo was troubled at the strangely quiet nature that she was showing. He turned to Evo to discuss his suspicions, "Is she ever going to go out there? I know this may be premature, considering she's only been here one day, but I'm worried that she won't move around enough; there's no point in being a jet if you're constantly stuck in a hangar."

John dismissed his claims, "she hasn't been stuck in the hangar. I left the door unlocked and she's already had a merry time patrolling the base. I can supervise some flying in the future as well."

This was good news; Evo wasn't trapped in the maintenance hangar and she had seen the base without an over-enthusiastic person trying to kill her. Evo showed his gratitude with a quick, respectful nod, before addressing John in the same manner, "Thank you, I'm really glad she's doing okay. However, I have some bad news for you."

John wasn't feeling quite so pleased now, something wasn't right, and it was obviously important to Evo, "what is it?"

Evo looked directly at John; the news was specifically about his relationship with the squadron, and it wouldn't be nice for him to hear it. "Tom has decided he doesn't want us in his regular squadron; we can still use the same airfield, but he doesn't want us messing with his squadron's regular duties."

This news upset John, as expected; he had been hoping that the squadron leader would let Evo stay with them, after he let them know about his shifting ability. Obviously this was not the case, and they would have to relocate immediately or risk angering Tom. John replied in a sombre tone, "So, what do we do now? Thankfully he's left us the runway, but there's honestly very few places where we could go on this airfield that aren't interfering with the squadron."

Evo nodded, despondent, "We'll probably have to find some isolated corner. I worry about her the most; in her machine form she'll be uncomfortable, out on the grass during the storms."

It was, truly a worrying fate for the other shifter that they had barely even met, but Christa defended herself from that future and suggested a new possibility, "what if we ask the mechanics for somewhere to stay? They aren't part of the squadron, so we don't have to stay away from them."

Her entrance to the conversation was both surprising and welcome; her words were sudden, but true and offered a nicer future.

So, John, as a mechanic himself, went off to gain some support. He was back, not too long after, with a smile on his face, "they've agreed to help us; they'll make one extra hangar to house Christa, and in the meantime we can use the repair hangar."

It was a perfect agreement for them; they got the space they needed for Christa and they had new friends on the airfield. And perhaps the engineers also profited from this agreement; considering they had agreed. Nevertheless, John took his Fighter from the squadron's line-up and put it outside the maintenance area.

As if to taunt them, the scramble bell sounded; rousing the other pilots and making them take off. Evo, John and Christa watched them go off; aware that they weren't allowed to follow them. Instead, they waited for the engine sounds to recede into the distance before relaxing; Evo and John on some chairs while Christa looked on from her bed of pillows.

After sitting for a few minutes, expectant of some action, John started a conversation, "So, what's your name [gesturing to Christa], I don't think we've heard it yet."

She responded quickly, "Christa,"

John committed her answer to memory, before continuing, "So, Christa. Is there anything that you're concerned about at the moment? Any uncomfortable pillows or _anything_? I'm not needed for battle now, so I'll be happy to oblige."

Christa shook her nose, "I'm fine, [her expression dropped a little] are you ever going to go back to battle?"

Evo started answering her, "Well, we are part of the military, it's expected that we go up there to shoot-"

John stopped him before he went too far, "Sorry, we should be looking at a non-violent approach; talking about attacking German pilots is insensitive, considering your presence. I'm sure we could find a better solution."

Evo was astonished at how quickly John had interrupted to stop him from insulting Christa, "Yeah! I'm sorry too, I should've thought about that first."

Evidently, even with John's precautions, Christa was upset about Evo talking so casually about the violence; her engine pods increasing rpm in response to her irritation, "please, be more careful. I know that's part of your job, but do _I_ have to know about it?"

Evo was downhearted, thinking about her words in regretful silence. John, however, was not willing to let either of his friends get upset, "Evo, it's fine; we know now, and we have the power to do things differently and help her."

Evo agreed; his mood lightening slightly.

John continued, "I'll try to think of a solution. For now, though, I would like to help the engineers with the building of the new hangar."

Christa offered to come, and John accepted calmly. John walked out first, followed by Christa after she had fully deployed her landing gear and increased her engine power to move slowly.

Evo was left alone to think, especially about the relationship between John and Christa; he hadn't been blind as John gained her favour, slowly and gently, but now he wanted to be her friend as well. He resolved he would try to get her attention, although John was clearly leading in that field, with casual ease and without force; he could even hear her laugh as John managed to humour her.

He went to follow them after the short period of time dedicated to his thoughts.

He found them around the corner of the maintenance sheds; John lending his effort to the incredibly fast construction while Christa watched him; smiling as he talked to her over the sound of his tools.

Evo settled next to Christa, although that action was mocked by John; who had expected him to do more, "Evo! Come over and help! It goes faster with more people building it."

There was a general round of agreement from the others working alongside him, before Evo agreed to his beckoning. He found a job to do; putting up the roof beams, while Evo continued, "So, Christa, have you got any other questions?"

Christa briefly glanced at Evo before coming up with a question, "Yes, how did you and machine-shifter meet?"

Evo masked his slow recollection with a short correction, "Call him Evo. [then he got the events in order] So, for your question, we first met during pilot training…"

John continued talking as Evo began listening to him as well; checking his own memories with the stories that Evo offered. Finally, John reached the point where he first saw Evo in machine form, adding his own thoughts in the middle of the story, "I still can't believe I was lucky enough to meet Evo, and you, Christa. You've both shown me something great."

Evo wasn't sure about his gratitude at the end, "was it great? All we do is change forms."

John still confirmed it was true, "I don't think you understand just how much it means for me to have two people in front of me with such talents; it's a dream come true!"

Now Evo and Christa were shown a different side of John; a childlike, happy version that was so far from his normal, mature behaviour. It endeared both of them to the only member of this friendship group who didn't have the ability to shape-shift.

He even managed to tell them this while continuing the work, ensuring that the building was still built quickly.

As the battle-scarred squadron returned, without 1 member, they were treated to the sight of the almost-complete building; a large building with fireproof metal panels around the interior and an earth floor. They still needed to add a cleaner cover for the floor and the roof was still incomplete, but it was still shocking that the outcasts of their squadron had gained a place to operate from so quickly.

The returning force landed, arranged themselves into standby positions and then dismounted from their aircraft. There was a rush of people from the building site as the engineers ran to fix the planes and one pilot went over to the hangar to give the ex-members the news, "Tom was shot down while we were out. I just thought you would like to know, friend."

It was nice of him to mention it to them, considering he should be ignoring them, now that Evo and John weren't in the squadron anymore. John thanked him for his politeness before asking Evo to get ready to help him fetch Tom; Evo agreed quickly before shifting into a lynx helicopter; anticipating landing in the countryside.

Quickly Evo started up and lifted off the ground, heading in the direction the squadron's planes had come from. Most people watching this display regarded the strange looking helicopter with confusion and a slight tinge of suspicion; John regarded it as just another form that Evo could transform into, shrugging his shoulders before entering his hurricane.

He rolled onto the runway and turned; preparing his aircraft for take off before smoothly leaving the ground. He heard a loud roar behind him and saw that Christa had adopted to do the same, arcing from her take-off run to follow John; specifically, John since she slowed her engines to maintain the same speed as the Hurricane.

As slow as the Hurricane was; Christa leaning back heavily just to keep the same speed without falling from the sky, he was still gaining on Evo in his helicopter form. He realised that normal communication would be pretty much impossible and turned on his radio, hoping that one of them would hear, "this is John to Evo and Christa, can you hear me?"

There was a moment of silence, and then they both answered, Christa first with, "I'm receiving you fine, what are we looking for?". Then Evo came on, both to prove his existence and to answer Christa's question, "This is Evo, we're trying to look for a stranded pilot. I'm switching to thermal."

Neither Christa nor John were familiar with the term "Thermal", but they assumed that he knew what he was doing. Eventually they heard him confirm a sighting, "I have someone on my thermal sight. Evo, could you confirm? I can't get below the trees."

John was in a state of slight disbelief, "How can I help? I'm not built for observation. You're a helicopter, couldn't you spot him?"

Evo disagreed, "I can't, every time I get close I'm just going to push tree branches in the way. You're going to have to act as the observer."

John cursed slightly before plotting a path between the tree trunks. Acquiring a line, he dived low, just above the tree tops, before rolling vertical, applying rudder and pushing his control column forward to prevent the plane from curving as he manoeuvred. Then he removed the extra rudder briefly; dipping below tree-top level before applying the initial rudder again to maintain his altitude.

He looked like an extreme dare devil as he rushed through the break in the trees, wingtips meters from the ground. Finally, he glimpsed his goal; a person walking through the forest who, fortunately, could be identified as Tom. He applied rudder again, in the opposite direction this time, to get above the trees.

He levelled off soon afterwards, gaining a whistle of appreciation from Christa and Evo, while Evo continued on with a disbelieving statement, "that was not what I expected, I thought you were going to fly inverted."

John was secretly embarrassed that he had chosen the unnecessarily complicated action, but embraced it, "Just thought it was a good option. Anyway, Tom's down there, so you can pick him up."

Evo agreed enthusiastically and lowered a line for Tom to attach himself to; he took a moment, suspicious of the errant group of machines around him, but then he accepted the line. Evo winched him up to the main body and let him disembark.

Evo was going to just fly him back to base, but a transmission from John stopped him; "Not yet, I want to know why we can't be accepted back."

So, Evo complied and landed on a barren field; far enough from settlements for their conversation to be private. He let his rotors wind down as his passenger started panicking. Tom exited the helicopter just as John and Christa landed gently on the soil; their finishing positions surrounding him on all sides.

Now Tom was incredibly worried; knowing that they probably wouldn't be likely to give him mercy after he had ousted them from the squadron. John exited the Hurricane and walked over to the petrified man,

"We need to talk."


	5. 5: Retrieval of Tom

**When war is a part of you**

 **Chapter 5**

Tom's battle-hardened reflexes were going haywire surrounded in this way; especially with Christa's presence as a _German_ aircraft.

John was having none of it; he may not like how the leader had treated Christa and Evo, but he also wasn't going to use this as an opportunity to beat him up; such actions felt unnecessary.

"Calm down, Tom. We can all act like gentlemen and gentlewomen around here, don't you agree? So, drop the whole 'deer in the headlights' expression; it isn't helping anyone at all." John said, politely, but with a hint of anger at Tom's lack of cooperation.

Tom relented, dropping his silence for a desperate cry.

"John, what the heck do you think you're bloody doing?! You can't just come and kidnap your own squadron leader! Show me proper respect and just let me walk home in peace!" Tom snapped, terrified and disgusted at the same time after this ridiculous way of meeting.

Christa temporarily aligned her sights on the leader, purposefully avoiding John in case the spread caught him, making Tom even more worried.

"And that thing! Do you know what it is? A bloody _German_ killing machine with eyes! Don't get me started on the fact that it and your friend here seem to be nothing more than damn minds in metal husks!" Tom shouted, making both Evo and Christa angrier; astonishingly Christa still managed to hold her fire.

John had been carefully maintaining his look of calm; he'd expected Tom to be unwilling to cooperate, so this wasn't a surprise, but the insults aimed at Evo and Christa were certainly unwelcome.

"Calm down, Tom; I understand that this is a stressful situation, but you're wise as well, aren't you. Now, tell me the wisdom of insulting two people who could turn any manner of weapon in your direction?" John asked, hoping Tom would see reason.

Tom took a while to calm down, but eventually he acknowledged the unwinnable situation he was in.

"Okay, fine. What do you want to talk about?" Tom gave up his whole aggressive act.

"Quite simply, Evo and Christa. You might see them as machine freaks, but I see the humans that they are, with their own special quirk. My deal is, you don't continue your current hatred towards us and we continue trying to fight and win this war."

Christa was a bit sceptical of his words, "What do you mean you will continue to _fight_?" Christa said, with a bit of uncertainty behind her words.

John immediately realised the errors behind his current perception; how would they continue to fight Germans in good faith knowing that they were fighting _with_ a German on their side; one that would be understandably sad and angry if they continued their current actions.

"I was going to say shoot down as many planes as possible, but I guess we shouldn't continue with that goal; having you here definitely does change the situation quite a lot." John said, feeling unsure about how they would proceed from here.

Christa was quite happy with the change. Tom didn't quite like how it sounded. "What exactly are you supposed to do instead? Talk the fighters down with kind words?!"

"No, we'll work something out. Anyway, if you agree to our terms-"

"Sure. It's not exactly as if I have anything to profit if I keep refusing." Tom said, not bothering to wait for John to finish his sentence.

John smiled; this was what he'd been waiting for.

"Well, that's good to hear. I don't have space in my hurricane for two people, so you'll have to fly with Evo or Christa." John explained.

A snarl from Christa, taking advantage of her metal fangs, made a clear indication of her refusal to carry Tom, causing him to jump back slightly in alarm, before realising that it was for show.

Thus he made his way over to Evo who shifted into a Spitfire, causing Tom to sigh slightly, "Not a hurricane? I've never piloted a Spitfire in my life. Any ideas why he like Spitfires, John?"

John could only give a shrug in response, before vaulting into his seat and letting Tom enter the Spitfire, before throttling up to full. His wheels cut through the earth, but they were high enough to start skimming and, after a while, he got to take off speed and pulled his hurricane into the skies.

He circled for a short period, watching as Christa struggled to get back into the air in a jet optimised for long, solid runways, before shifting into a helicopter and taking off vertically.

Tom gave a small laugh at her expense, seen through the cockpit cover but then Evo started up his own engines and Tom looked a lot more worried; remembering that the thing below him was very similar to the thing he had laughed at.

John laughed at the karma he had just witnessed, before rolling over and pulling off towards the airport. Like a lot of their encounters, it had been quick and efficient, but now that meant he was free to ponder the solution for Christa.

' _She's brought up a good point; how exactly are we supposed to approach war non-lethally, for her sake? And, to make it harder, we're going against the darn air force; how to get an entire flight crew, of a bomber for instance, down to the ground? Shoot, I'll have to ask Evo.'_

Finding himself in the midst of something so confusing, John had to retreat into a calmer place. He relaxed his mind and reset his grip on the control column before exhaling deeply. Then he relaxed himself into the seat and, in search of further action, he remembered he had almost a full tank of fuel, so he pulled up, feeling the returning feeling of flight; awe, control and power.

Christa pulled away from the soil, cursing the inability to take off in the soil. She wondered how John would pull off his final decision; she couldn't think of a way to achieve that goal either. However, she hoped that he would find a solution. Then she shifted into her normal jet form and followed John.

Evo was ready himself to take off as well. He took a quick 'glance' back to his passenger, who was nervously clutching the unresponsive control stick and throttle. He chortled slightly at his passenger's reaction, before accelerating towards the end of the field to take off.

Christa was almost on John's tail when he began his set of stunts; the engine pitch increased as John increased it to 'TOGA' power and launched himself up to the heavens.

Initially worried that something had snuck up on her, Christa looked around to confirm that there wasn't an attacker that she'd missed. Satisfied, she followed him into his stunt, searching the frequencies for his current one. Her search was eventually answered as John gave a shout of excitement into his mike as he entered a barrel roll.

Patching in, she started speaking.

"John? Are you okay?"

John temporarily stopped his acrobatic flying, first in surprise and then to answer.

"Yeah, I felt a little… overwhelmed when I tried to think about how we could possibly bring german aircraft or their crew without killing anyone. This flying is helping me forget about it for a while; I wished I lived in the sky; I've never felt at home anywhere else except my natural home and the shooting range." John confided, easing the stick right as he ended to resume flying for fun like before.

Christa was surprised that he did care about that. She couldn't really talk over John's happiness, so she flew alongside him and caught his wing with her own before he could begin fully rolling.

"You're actually considering that? I thought that it was just blurted out." Christa asked.

She could see him nodding in the cockpit.

"Of course, for your sake I was serious when I made that offer, darling. Anyway, Tally ho!" John said, acting responsible up until he took his chance to get back into his performance; reducing power and then turning off to be free again.

Christa was joyous that John had confirmed the statement; the thought that she would be involved with people who didn't want to just shoot things with abandon was heartening. Her reaction to his given name for her was less certain, but her response would've been similar to Evo's as he came on.

"Darling? Hold up there loverboy." Evo said with a humoured tone.

"Loverboy? You mean gentleman; one must know how to be polite to a lady." John replied, with a forced posh accent. But, at the same time, he suspected that Evo would only continue with that notion while they were literally wingtip to wingtip, so he banked off again.

Christa, who'd seen this move before, decided that she liked this game. She followed suit behind him.

Evo sighed over the radio while his passenger watched with confusion as the jet followed the hurricane.

"John, be advised; you've got a German on your rear." Evo said at first, playing along. Then he got a little more serious. "Also, try not to waste your fuel on this… whatever this is."

Both John and Christa laughed at this, but John also took the opportunity to turn away while Christa was distracted.

"Oh no you don't, I'll get you." Christa said as she recovered.

Evo had to admit some jealousy as he saw both Christa and John having fun. "I wish I could join you up there; looks like a lot of fun, but I've got a passenger who probably wouldn't like it."

John took a while to think about that, even as he was distracted by trying to evade Christa. Suddenly he got an idea that made him smile.

"Evo?"

"Yes John?"

"I was thinking, you have a passenger right?"

Evo was thinking he was stating the obvious at this point.

"Yes?"

"And he wouldn't like you throwing him around, would he?"

Still a known fact. Evo wasn't sure he was going.

"Yes?"

"And he was rude about you back in the field, right?"

"Ye- oh wait, hang on." Evo said as it all clicked; Tom had shown nothing but hatred for 'his kind', and now he had him in the passenger seat. Grinning in a way that, from the outside, it looked like realistic nose-art, Evo changed to the cabin speakers.

"Hello Tom" Evo said, already enough to scare him a little after the silence. "I'm feeling like experiencing a couple of 'g's." Evo warned, confusing Tom, before he realised what he meant and subconsciously checked his straps before Evo pulled up hard, straining the airframe and Tom.

Changing back to their shared radio frequency, Evo acknowledged his participation in the game.

"Evo coming in to defend your back." Evo said, before falling in behind Christa and trying to mimic her manoeuvres after her. The game endured for a while, helped by the extreme differences, in terms of performance, between the three planes.

Christa would have had the advantage, had John not changed flaps to combat and used superior turning to thwart Christa's superior top speed.

Evo made sure to follow Christa carefully, as though she had been his actual target, which was easy until Christa got bored of being out turned and decided to switch things up a bit.

"I'm tired of you using your turning; my engines are barely warm! I think you're going to have trouble if I change up my strategy." Christa joked around, before increasing her speed beyond what the propeller planes could keep up with.

Evo decided to follow her up, shifting into an English electric lightning, to the mixed fascination and shock of his passenger.

This change, however, was not good for John, since he couldn't change his current aircraft.

"I guess I'll leave you to it until we get on the ground. Evo, if you want to keep this up, be prepared to tell the rest of the squadron about what you did to Tom." John said and prepared to re-orientate to fly to the airstrip.

The first response was a chuckle from Christa, before Evo started talking.

"Sure thing, I don't mind telling them, it's worth it for-"

"You think you can get away that easy, John? Watch out!" Christa said, before flying right past John.

John shook and cursed as his body reacted to the shock of a loud jet passing so close.

"Dear god… Christa, that scared the life out of me!" John said, getting another laugh from Christa.

"Do you want to keep this up John? Or do you want to go to the airport." Evo asked, earning a sigh of disappointment from Christa.

"Does he have to? This is fun." Christa moaned.

"Don't worry Christa, I suppose this is good practice, if we're going to try and do this thing." John said, referring to the non-lethal plan from earlier.

He was answered with a moment of silence from the radio, only hearing the sound of his engine and the wind. Then Christa gave him another pass and again he got shocked out of his skin.

"Dear lord! I'd better keep an eye out. What are you doing, Evo, and why are you not on her tail?"

He got a grumble in response.

"Tom doesn't deal with the g-forces too well; I can give him a reasonable amount, but too much and he starts getting harmful blood rushes."

John nodded, he could understand that.

"Well, I guess you'll have to find something less stressful; perhaps change into a Hurricane and land back at base?" John suggested, a bit sad that Evo couldn't stay on, in a fit of something resembling childish behaviour. Nevertheless, he still had great fun trying to dodge Christa as she came in for mock attack runs.

Occasionally, John would hear Christa giggling or laughing every time she got a good run or he did a dodge as the thrill of the game got to her; John loved to hear that sound; fun barely got to him when the war started. Also, like he had suggested earlier, every time he anticipated her, pulled some 'g's, increased or decreased throttle and reset flaps, he was gaining experience, experience that he could use, while evading fighters for instance.

Eventually his fuel dial got to a worrisome level, so he levelled out and informed Christa of the situation.

"I'm low on fuel, going back to the airfield." He said, getting a confirmation from Christa moments before she broke off her latest attack run; slowing down and aligning with him so that she could fly in formation. John was flying at his maximum cruise; a decision confirmed to be prudent as Christa had to pitch up quite a lot just to remain at his speed.

They remained in formation for a few minutes, making idle talk, some romantic, to pass the time. Gradually, the airfield came into view. Knowing about Christa's current trouble with low speed, John let her land before him, saying a quick, "Ladies first!" before pulling off and turning back.

Christa's first thought was to follow him, but his words suggested his reasons, so she came in to land, extending her landing gear, but still not letting that comment go under the radar.

"I don't think I'm exactly the kind of lady you normally give that advice." Christa suggested, knowing she carried a fair bit more firepower than most women at the moment.

John laughed at this, just at the moment before her wheels hit the grass.

"Pretty smile, pretty voice, lovely manners; like it or not, you're a lady." John said.

"I thought you were above this little bit of romance, my friend." Evo commented, still on the radio, to the surprise of John. Christa was now at taxiing speed.

"Eh, I might have given up on that notion; The war I'm fighting now has just changed quite a lot, I think that I can try to woo a lady, even if said lady is a German jet aircraft with cannons that could tear me apart." John said, slightly uncomfortable acknowledging the effects of her firepower.

"You're doing a good job with the whole wooing, keep this up and I might feel obliged to marry you." Christa said, earning a gasp from John in surprise.

"Really? Okay, if you say so. By the way, if we do keep this going, promise me you aren't going to turn up at the wedding ceremony as _that?_ It might cause a shock, you understand?" John said, although in his mind he felt the idea of trying to dress up a jet in wedding veils to be intensely humorous. He reflected on it a bit longer before beginning his own landing run.

"Sure thing." Christa replied simply.

"Good lord, John, already snagged a jet girl for yourself? That was quick."

Christa was disgruntled by his choice of wording, but still managed to tease Evo despite it.

"I think you're just jealous. John was nice, courteous and understanding to me, fair and square." Christa responded, getting a little bit agitated.

"And that's all you need, Jet girl? Do you realise-" Evo started, before getting cut off.

"Do you realise that Christa could make you unconscious if she fired rounds into your engine block?" John warned.

Suddenly, Evo didn't feel safe in his machine form; in which form he still stayed in; until the pilots were distracted for long enough that he could slip out unnoticed.

He'd almost gotten out after the arrival of Christa, but the mysterious appearance of a new plane that Tom had apparently found was a bigger curiosity for the pilots, rather than the jet they'd already seen and could explain the appearance of.

John touched down gently on the grass; hitting the runway with such little vertical speed that it would seem he was lowered by cable. However, he didn't linger on this luxurious landing; taxiing as soon as he was able to into his Hurricane's position alongside the others'.

He came out of the cockpit just as the radio received a transmission; he couldn't hear what was said because he was disconnected, so he just continued disembarking.

After he was off, John turned around, away from his rugged plane, to see a slightly curious scene.

The pilots were crowding around a hurricane, engine running and probably Evo, talking to Tom. The way he gave that Hurricane irritated glances told him that Tom wasn't all too happy about his abduction. Still, the thought that he had wronged Tom was not in John's mind; he'd done what was necessary and they'd even given him a lift… with only a few 'detours' along the way.

 **End of Chapter.**

 **This chapter hasn't racked up a lot of words over 3000, which is surprising considering the amount of time I put into them, but there were a lot of stories, so it makes sense that I'd have to split the time between them.**


	6. 6: the first interception

**When war is a part of you.**

 **Chapter 6.**

Tom needed some time to cool off, meanwhile John, Evo and Christa returned to their spare hanger for now, waiting for some kind of opportunity to experiment with this new style of interception; when the next raid was announced.

They didn't have to wait long; in 30 minutes their squadron was once again called upon; The other members were a bit disorganised, but John was immediately running for his own aircraft as the engineers started up the mighty merlin for him before leaving him to it as he boarded hurriedly and rolled straight to take off; pushing the throttle to full as he roared into the air.

His feat, though ambitious and well done in its own regard, was overshadowed as Evo and Christa had already taken to the air; doing orbits to wait for him.

Seeing them waiting for him, John had to coordinate them slightly. He put his oxygen mask to his face and talked into it, "John Christa, don't wait for me; With your speed you could go ahead and scout." He said and, hesitantly, Evo and Christa adjusted their heading and burnt off ahead of him; Evo going along a course that he was relatively sure the german fighters and bombers would use while Christa followed, with slight apprehension of what she would have to do to resolve this peacefully.

Still, even with the mixed feelings, the two jets made good time across the plentiful fields of war-torn Britain towards what they hoped were there intended quarry.

20 minutes in, thankful that they'd heard John discretely inform their sector's command that the two fast moving jets that the observers could see were friendly, they almost missed the formation itself; a looming squadron of bombers.

At this point, the memory of what had happened to his friend re-emerged and Evo went in for an attack run in a brutal chase for vengeance. He got into his cannon's range before Christa shot a few rounds past him to distract him. Instinctively he pulled off his attack, giving Christa an angry glance as he re-aligned himself, still in the midst of his anger.

Again, Christa flew in and interrupted him before he could fire, and this time Evo's attention shifted to her; helped by the hated Luftwaffe insignia shown on her tail and wings.

"Do not interfere, Christa, I need to do this or they will kill innocent civilians with those bombs." He said, with the first-hand experience of the repercussions of those bombs.

Christa honestly couldn't say she was the best therapist, and she could hear the definite anger in his voice.

"NO! Control yourself! I don't want people getting hurt as much as you do, but they are only the people who are made to do this. Like John said, we need to make them stop without hurting them." Christa said, intensely worried about how Evo was acting.

" **YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"** Evo said, the horrible memories he had refused to go away as he lined up again. Christa intercepted him for the final time and then he snapped.

" **You… traitor."** He said, underneath his breath through the radio link to Christa. **"You damned German traitor, you deserve these rounds as much as they do!"** Evo said, categorising Christa as his enemy and turning to engage her.

He was going in, while the confused bomber gunners tried to shoot them both down, and trying to fire at Christa when another source interrupted him; 8 trails of tracer passed in front of him and he pulled off to see John.

"Calm down! For Christ's sake Evo!" John roared, finishing off his intimidatory tracer fire before turning off. "We need to get on with this, just focus on taking one back to base and we can try to intimidate the rest." John then continued, controlling his anger to try and explain the situation calmly, though he was desperately fighting the urge to rage.

Evo's anger abated slightly, but it was a short respite; he still was very wary of the German bomber's reason to be here. Still, he levelled out and began flying normally, which gave John the indication he needed.

"Okay, right. I hope this doesn't happen again. Anyway, we need to get on with this; we're close to London now and we also have English fighters on route.

Evo, Christa, try to intimidate the bomber swarm; get them worried, preferably with loud sounds and bright things, but no damaging aircraft; that risks hurting someone." John planned, letting them get on with it while he had a debatably harder job of separating one bomber from the rest; their first attempt to bring a bomber out of the conflict without shooting it down.

Evo and Christa agreed, switching to explosive shells and not neglecting to put timed fuses on their rounds; letting them pepper the sky in front of the bombers; making them believe that the anti aircraft guns were on target with their fire; making them perform evasive manoeuvres.

The gunners were the ones who actually knew where these rounds were coming from and they were a bit more worried; knowing that an aircraft with this kind of explosive armament could easily blow them apart with one shot; they recommended, or more accurately begged, for the plane to turn around and go back before they got shot down.

The pilots agreed quickly, feeling pretty outperformed; they were already surrounded by explosions and could see two ridiculously fast planes rush past them before their fighter escorts had even had time to react.

However, they still had fighter escort and, while the bombers turned back, the fighters above were diving in a valiant effort to fight back.

Also, as they dived, they gained speed and for a short time were able to catch up to the two vehicle shifters and fire; shooting bullets over and onto the wings; which pinged off the bullets at their angle.

Even though their bullets were of little use, inflicting a few holes in the jets, it was enough reason for Evo and Christa to break off their attack; flying off until the fighters ran out of their excess speed before looping over them and going back to harass the remaining bombers.

Once there was one left, they escorted the retreating bombers right back to the English channel; making sure to keep them intimidated all the way and preventing them from trying to redirect onto another target.

With them escorting, John focused on the lone bomber, although as a single propeller fighter he was a little more vulnerable than the jets, so he was under heavy barrage until the gunners ran out of ammunition, dodging and being generally unpredictable until he was sure.

Now that the airplane was defenceless, he had to work on making it go where he wanted to go, which was honestly a challenge, considering he had no idea how to convince it. For a while, he did intimidatory firing as before, and tried to force them to abide.

Then he switched to a tactic like he and Evo had tried on Christa; putting himself on top of the plane's wing and pushing his control stick forward to try and use his armoured engine underside to turn the aircraft. It did work, but slowly and he couldn't do both sides. He kept on going for a while; nudging the aircraft carefully, before accidentally tearing part of the wings with his propeller.

Fortunately, this was a good thing; since the bomber crew understood what he was trying to do and knew that they would be gradually torn apart without defensive armament before they got back, so when Evo went over to see how the plane was going to try to evade, they instead just kept going; doing as told since they preferred capture rather than death.

Knowing their circumstance, most of the crew had already started bailing out; the bomb aimer and the gunners were virtually useless by this point so they chose to parachute and risk whatever might happen to them below. Meanwhile, the pilot was forced to stay at his post; looking back nervously at the fighter as he hoped the hurricane wouldn't decide to shoot him out of the air for fun. This tension persisted for a while, as he handled his parachute carefully, before he was gladdened to see what seemed to be his destination.

John had also been worried, but for different reason; he had really expected them to do something reckless, as they were accustomed to do for the pride of Germany, but evidently they were selfish enough to just want to get out of danger. He noticed, below the horizon on the right side of his engine, that his runway was near and so he guided the bomber in to land on his airfield.

The bomber's engines stopped immediately after the landing, at ICO mixture; the pilot being too afraid to begin taxiing in for their benefit while he sought the opportunity to flee himself, now that he was safely on the ground.

He leapt out of the door and ran away from where he could see the other aircraft, while John circled around and landed behind him, also neglecting his taxi so that he could take a look at the bomber he'd helped to land with well-deserved pride.

After his initial look at the outside, John then proceeded to take a tour of the inside; in awe of the strange interior and of the different objects he found; including the used ammo belts which he, of course, felt a slight agitation towards; chucking them out.

Christa and Evo were the first to arrive back, before the squadron; each showing a different attitude to the new bomber. Evo changed into his human form, which seemed oddly unfamiliar after his time in jet form, to explore the bomber while Christa opted instead to go over and talk to John as he got out of the aircraft.

"So, I see you were successful." She commented from her cockpit mouth, impressed.

"Yeah, I was pretty lucky there; he was pretty obliging after his defensive gunners ran out of ammunition." John replied calmly. "So, how did Evo go? Did he cause any extra trouble?" He asked.

Christa grimaced, telling John in brief all he needed to know, but expanded her point. "Well, he was fine for a while, but his desire to shoot down bombers…" She said, shuddering at the thought. "Very, _very_ strong. One of the fighters hit him in the fuel tank and set him on fire. He put that out, thankfully, but he blamed it on the bombers, not the fighters and tried to shoot it down. I managed to stop him again, but then he had another incident a few moments later while we were escorting them near the coast; he suddenly started an attack run, talking about shooting the 'weapons of hell bound to those infernal machines's belly.' Quite a way with words, but I had to stop him again and it was very close; he almost managed to put a round through their bomb bays." Christa recounted with distaste. "I don't know if we should really keep him around because, no offense, he is a loose set of cannons." Christa emphasized.

John listened diligently, unhappy that his friend had lost himself to his rage once again and almost killed a bomber formation right in front of Christa. "I'm sorry you had to stop him, I thought he'd realise what he was doing beforehand. At the same time, I'm very impressed you were able to keep him under control, thank you." John complimented, which Christa liked. Then he looked back to the bomber as a thought came into his head. "At the same time though, we didn't really get much in return; one plane captured isn't going to stop the war, and apart from that the only thing we did was waste some of Germany's fuel. I feel like we need to do something else with more results; still not fatal, mind you; I don't want to push you into a path of just killing fellow people of Germany." John said, empathic to Christa's cause.

"Thank you, John, that means a lot to me," Christa replied. "And for the problem of bombers, I suggest that we just go for the engines; they won't get very far without them and they should have proper time to bale out." She suggested wisely.

"That is true, good idea Christa." He complimented warmly, to which Christa blushed. "And knowing you, you'll be able to hit the engines precisely." John commented.

"How would you know that? I haven't shot anything down yet." Christa commented, a competitive part of herself quite disappointed.

"I know that because of our first encounter; I know that if I hadn't been able to dodge as well as I could, or my aircraft wasn't up to the task, I would've been shot straight out of the air; you are a very good shot." John replied sincerely.

"I'd almost forgotten about that, seems like it happened such a long time ago. I would never even consider firing at you now." Chrisa stated, making John thankful.

Their conversation was cut off as Evo walked out, happy with their achievement. "I never thought I'd get to see one of these things up close… kind of amazing that we now have one of these in our possession." Evo announced, gladly.

John turned to him. "I'd agree, but I hear you lost your temper." John said, seriously but gently. "Please don't do that again. I know that bombers killed your friends, but this isn't the way to get back at them." John said. "Be sensible here, you don't have to act out in anger." He continued, trying to sooth Evo.

Evo lost his happy mood almost immediately, turning to more of an angry state as he heard this. "You don't know how I feel, John. You can't; you weren't there when it exploded around me and I looked into his dying eyes." Evo said, solemnly.

John stayed quiet for a moment, letting the words sink in slowly, before sighing with emphathy. "Evo, I do know, I've listened to you for years, I've heard your story, I've comforted you in your moments of despair. I just don't want you, or any of us- [he gestures to Christa] becoming people of vengeance." John declares.

"Well said, I'm glad that I didn't join a band of cold-blooded killers." Christa says, relieved.

John sighs again, this time in disappointment at himself. "We were going to be, I'm sorry to say; we were going to go after any Germans we wound and kill them without mercy." John confides slowly, hating himself for what he had to say.

"Oh." Christa replies simply in response to the blunt statement. She doesn't have any words after that, it was too shocking for her to reply.

"Which is why I'm thankful we met you; you have changed my mind about the Nazis, Sure I still hold some bad blood for them, and there are some that are truly evil, but I know there are those who just do as they're told." John informs Christa, to her relief.

"We might have to start killing again, though; we don't know what they're going to come at uswith and if we're not careful we could die before we have the chance." Evo argues, his tainted memories suggesting only the worst possible outcomes.

"We shouldn't think about that, Evo. Let's concentrate on stopping this without violence." John suggests, before following that up. "Both of you are amazing; able to shift into what seems like any military machine! Can you imagine what we'll be able to do?" John urged, trying to remind them of who they were.

Christa agreed with him, and reiterated his point to Evo. "Exactly. We, by ourselves, were able to hold off against a bomber squadron. I don't want to have blood on my hands while trying to stop this." She said to him, her imposing stature also helping her to intimidate him slightly.

"Fine, fine. I guess I was too quick to assume we'd need help." Evo admitted, softly, holding his head in shame at what he assumed was Christa and John condemning him for his thoughts. John came up to him and gave him a kind pat on the back. "Don't worry, Evo, I would've thought the same if I didn't have you two to help me." John said softly into his ear.

"What matters now is that we can do something to prevent the bloodshed; we can stop our people from dying and German people from dying for the sake of war." John said, focusing again on the people they would save.

He did this because they were the reason John was doing this, not for the war, not for personal gain; he was saving lives and trying, desperately, to shorten the war for the sake of those who might be lost; the most heartbreaking and personal example of which was Evo's friend; he didn't want that to happen to someone else.

"Again, well said." Christa said, slightly stunned at the drive he'd shown. "I look forward to playing my part in this, and I'll help where I can." She said, submissive to the leader figure.

"Christa, this is a responsibility of all of us; remember that idea you came up with earlier? I would've had a hard time figuring that out for myself; let us help each other." He stated gently to both Christa and Evo.

Now the squadron was coming back and John attempted to clear their recently-captured Bomber from the runway, trying to use Christa as a towing vehicle for the brief moment they thought it was plausible; leading them to laugh out loud as the engineers breezed past them with a jeep to get it off the runway properly, although John still gave them polite greetings to them as they passed, which they returned in kind.

Once they were done looking at the bomber, Evo, John and Christa retired for the day, to rest in their hanger until another situation came along.

 **End of Chapter.**

 **A/N**

 **I did it and I'm glad I've done it.**

 **End A/N**


End file.
